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Der Einsiedler, Op 144a

1915; first performed in July 1916; for baritone, five-part chorus & orchestra; piano-accompanied version made by Reger; dedicated to the Bach Verein Heidelberg & Dr Philipp Wolfrum; published as No 1 of Zwei Gesänge für gemischten Chor mit Orchester

Introduction

Der Einsiedler, composed in 1915, sets a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff (1788–1857), whose lyrical evocations of troubled souls and nature’s beauties appealed to many of Reger’s contemporaries; Strauss’s setting of the world-weary Im Abendrot as what eventually became the last of the Four Last Songs cemented the association between Eichendorff and the late-Romantic world-view. Der Einsiedler alone had already been set by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Bruch and Wolf; one of Reger’s most celebrated pupils, Othmar Schoeck, would later add his own interpretation to the canon. The poem’s theme—the ‘comfort’ offered to the world by the ‘quiet night’—has obvious links with Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, whose protagonists likewise yearn for ‘night’; intentionally or not, Reger highlights this link with some Tristan-inflected harmony, though this is less evident in the mostly homophonic choral parts than in the orchestral accompaniment (here played in Reger’s idiomatic piano transcription), and in particular in the descending chromatic lines given to the baritone soloist, who enters for the second stanza and whose voice mingles with the chorus in the third. The words ‘O Trost der Welt’, sung frequently by the chorus, are repeated by the soloist as the music finds eventual repose in the home key; the human voice seems metaphorically to convey the comfort offered by night, while the sometimes febrile, harmonically restless piano part represents the subjectivity of the eponymous hermit.

Recordings

A second disc from new chamber choir Consortium, who were acclaimed for their disc of Brahms’s secular partsongs. Although Reger’s music has partly recovered from its deeply unfashionable reputation, much of this prolific composer’s work still rem ...» More

Come, comfort of the world, quiet night! How softly you descend from the hills, The breezes all are sleeping, One sailor still, travel-wearied, Sings over the water his evening song In praise of God in the harbour.

The years, like the clouds, go by And leave me here in solitude, Forgotten by the world, Then wondrously you came to me, As I sat here lost in thought Beside the murmuring wood.

O comfort of the world, quiet night! The day has tired me so, The wide sea darkens now, Let me rest from joy and pain, Until the eternal dawn Flashes through the silent wood.